Induction Reasoning

This morning's excitement has given way to an afternoon malaise. This is to be expected for any sort of hospital stay. It's easy these days, though. We have our wifi. I brought our home stereo & an iPod with over 28,000 songs - 27,600 which are not N'Sync or Backstreet Boys, thank you very much.

There was a delay while we waited for the doctor but as of a half hour ago Alice has been administered misoprostol as part of phase two. I should note that before anyone asks misoprostol (link) is not the main ingredient of miso soup- in fact, Nurse Jackie informed me that it's not even in miso soup at all! Nurse Jackie's body language told me that my jokes aren't even a tenth as funny as I think they are.

My pregnant partner (aka withchild wife) has been told to expect some cramping over the next 3-4 hours. This brings us to 6pm PDT. At that time the doctors will check on her and decide our next steps based on those observations. It's kind of like those Choose Your Own Adventure books (link) but with even more mentions of the word uterus. If things* look ready at 6 then it'll be "all aboard!" the Pitocin Express (link) to the land of labor.

Here's a rundown for our experience with labor by induction:

• Phase 1: Check in & set up - DONE
• Phase 2: Drug #1 Misoprostol - IN PROCESS
• Phase 3: Drug #2 Pitocin - est. 6pm PDT - ON DECK
• Phase 4: Labor!
• Phase 5: Delivery
• Phase 6: Back slaps, cheers & bubblegum cigars
• Phase 7: Open up one of those 529 college savings plans & a gofundme campaign for our parenting fund even before the cord is cut. Kids are expensive! More on that later...

Alice getting her game face on for Phase 4

*Footnote: On the use of the word "things": I have come across a challenge as we delve deeper into our little experiment of live blogging our delivery - something so inherently intimate & private to us - to our many friends and family. How do you balance being informative and educational against topics & labels that may be too personal? My first and foremost concern is that I only post elements that Alice is comfortable with- and she is OK with an above average amount. The other concern comes in for the many different personalities of our audience. In a world where oversharing is becoming all too common discretion is a virtue that I would benefit from developing further.